Voyage Charters

Timothy Young KC; Michael Ashcroft; Julian Cooke; Andrew Taylor; John Kimball; LeRoy Lambert; David Martowski; Michael Sturley

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Chapter 23 Agency

13.	Agency1	138
	In every case the Owners shall appoint his own Broker or Agent both	139
	at the port of loading and the port of discharge.	140

Appointment of port agents

23.1 Under the Gencon agency clause, as under many voyage charters, the right and the duty of selecting and appointing agents to attend the ship at loading and discharging ports is vested in the owners. The clause may be contrasted with the provision normally found in time charters to the effect that the master shall be under the orders and directions of the charterers as regards employment and agency, which obliges the master or owners to appoint the agent nominated by the charterers.2 23.2 The reference in the clause to a “broker” is perhaps surprising, since in modern commercial practice there is no reason why owners whose ship is operating under charter should require the services of a broker at either port. If the ship is employed by the charterers as a general ship it is they rather than the owners who might require the services of a loading broker. Historically, however, ships were often fixed for the return voyage by local agents at the end of the outward voyage, and the purpose of the reference may be to exclude the result reached in some cases, decided under charters which provided that the ship was to be “consigned to charterers’ agents” to the effect that the charterers’ selected agent was entitled not only to attend the vessel but also to find a return cargo, and for his services to recover from the owner a commission on the return freight, for which the charterer could sue as trustee for the agent.3

Duty and authority of port agents

23.3 The obligations and the authority of a ship’s agent at the loading or discharging port are governed by the terms of the express instructions which he receives from his principal and,

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subject to those, by any relevant usage at the port in question. Where the agent is simply instructed in general terms, his duties were described as follows by Pearson L.J. in Blandy Bros. v. Nello Simoni:4

The ship’s agent is, in the normal case, the agent of the shipowner at the particular port, and the ship’s agent, therefore, at that port stands in the shoes of the shipowner; and it is reasonable to suppose that he has the authority to do whatever the shipowner has to do at that port. We have then to consider what normally are the obligations of the shipowner.

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